


Space Ghost

by IspeakfortheQueen



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Friends With Benefits, Implied Sexual Content, Mystery Girl POV, POV Second Person, post s5 finale, so some spoilers for that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 08:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17846366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IspeakfortheQueen/pseuds/IspeakfortheQueen
Summary: Part of you wishes that you could be her but then sometimes it seemed she was chasing after you just for your “incredibly human life!"  She had called your life that once.  “Incredibly human life, with your artificially colored pink hair and your motorcycle!”  She made you feel good for being you and maybe that’s why her sudden disappearance from your DMs is such a disappointment.





	Space Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write a fic where Mystery Girl sees Pearl in her new outfit but then I realized it's probably been a while since they've seen each other.

The girl you’ve been seeing ghosted you. It hurts like hell and you’ve been spending the last few days trying to push down whatever emotions you had somehow managed to accidentally attached to this relationship. She said she wasn’t looking for anything serious right now. She said she had recently got out of a very long and very serious relationship and was just looking to goof around and figure out who she was. You knew what you were getting into when you started seeing her and what you were setting yourself up for when you agreed to the terms of "friends with benefits", so you shouldn’t be surprised.

You _shouldn’t_ be surprised but she ended up really surprising you. She wasn’t like any other girl you had met at a house show. For the most part she presented as an awkward and fumbling newly single mom, but from the little she told you about herself, you were able to piece together that her life was very bad-ass and very cool. She taught fencing to children, was an expert swordsman, also a ballerina probably, claimed to have a waterfall in her room, and you had a running theory that she was an alien and somehow personally involved in all that freaky space stuff that goes down in Beach City.

Part of you wishes that you could be her but then sometimes it seemed she was chasing after you just for your “incredibly human life!” She called your life that once. “Incredibly human, with your artificially colored pink hair and your motorcycle!” She makes you feel good for being you and maybe that’s why the sudden disappearance from your DMs is such a disappointment.

She was also really good in bed.

She had said she couldn’t see you next week because her friends were getting married and she was going to be be busy with the preparations. You wanted to ask her if you could be her plus one, but you remember the boundaries the two of you have set up.

So a week passed and then another week passed and another. You texted her but got no response.

She hasn’t texted you for a long time.

\- - -

You needed to go to Beach City for some dumb reason. What was it? Oh your grandma from Jersey mailed you a scented candle for your birthday, forgetting that you live in Ocean Town of all places. You have to go to the next town over just to legally buy matches.

The beach communities in Delmarva are home to some pretty weird townies during the offseason, but Beach City's townies take the cake. Outside the town’s only grocery store there’s what looks like an enormous four eyed caterpillar chatting amiably with a woman in paint stained overalls. Inside there’s a teen with a sunburn so bad that his skin matches his pink hair, explaining how vending machines work to a pair of Siamese twins. You grab the matches you were looking for and head straight to the check out line.

A man with a full beard in a yellow raincoat is holding up the line by haggling over coupons with the cashier. His son it seems is pretending to read tabloids while discreetly pocketing chocolate bars. You’re about to say something about it when a finger taps your shoulder. You whip your head around to see who it is when you’re ambushed in a flurry of powder blue shoulder pads. Arms are around your shoulders in an instant and then a squeal of joy in your ear. 

“It’s been so long!” chirps a clear, happy, and very familiar voice. This was not the response you expected from running into the woman ghosting you in the grocery store.

“Uh, what’s up?”

You want to say that she looks good, but are afraid it would be too forward. She looks different. Not just her clothes, which are different from the clothes you always see her in. Her face looks different, like something big has changed in her.

“Oh goodness, so much has happened since I last saw you! I’m sorry I haven’t had time to visit!” She says "visit" so casually and cheerfully. Like she’s talking about a regular social call, not a string of meticulously scheduled hook ups.

“Did you get my texts?” you say carefully.

“Texts?” Her face goes blank as she tries to remember something. “Oh stars, my cell phone!”

The bearded man and his son leave and the line moves up. You pay for the matches quickly and as you wait for change you see her scrolling through various messages on her phone.

“I- oh,” she stammers staring at her screen as she scrolls. “I have so many messages! I-“ She quickly looks up at you. “I phantommed you didn’t I?”

“Phantommed?”

“Phantommed? Is that what the kids are killing it these days? Disappearing with no notice? Spiriting away? No, that’s not it-“

You chuckle as she sorts out the phrasing and pays for her groceries. You hadn’t realized she had groceries. A gallon of milk, a box of frozen waffles, a package of hot dogs, some absurdly processed sugary cereal. You didn’t think she ate this unhealthily.

The cashier doesn’t ask if she wants a bag and just as you’re about to offer to carry her things the big white stone on her forehead glows. She lifts each item gently to her forehead and each item disappears into the light from the stone in a flash. That was a new trick.

“Now what were we talking about-“ she goes on, acting like nothing strange had just happened. “Oh yes, forgive me for not replying to your messages- shall we walk out together? I was out of town and my phone didn’t have any reception.”

“You were out of town? For the wedding?”

“Wedding? Oh yes! The wedding! Is that how long it’s been? Oh stars, no! The wedding was here on the beach, but uh, some unexpected guests came and I had to go to space with my, ah, family. The trip took longer than expected.”

Outside the grocery store the giant caterpillar creature was still there and the woman in the paint stained overalls was holding the shop lifting kid in her arms and happily pressing her side into the bearded man in the yellow raincoat. 

“You went to space?” you ask quietly. It clicks in your head somehow that the presence of this giant caterpillar creature is the result of this space trip. Or maybe they're on of those "unexpected guests" from the wedding. You’re surprised that you're really not that surprised.

“Mm-hm!” she beams. As she follows you to your motorbike, she explains in the vaguest possible terms how she may have saved the planet from near destruction and had to go to outer space on a botched diplomatic mission which resulted in her coming back to Earth and saving some of her oldest friends which took a lot of time and energy.

“So you really were busy,” you say as soon as you reach your parking spot behind the Big Donut.

“Oh yes, I hope you don’t think I’ve been ignoring you! It’s been so hectic lately. There’s been guests in and out of the house, which is still being rebuilt, I might add, and different measures being taken to make sure the newly restored uh… friends… have a safe place to live.”

She’s confirmed your theories one after another about her being involved in “that freaky space stuff that goes down in Beach City”. 

“Are you a space alien?” you ask.

“Uh, I… Who me? I, uh- Well, it’s funny-you- I-“ she seems very caught off guard by the question, before replying sheepishly, “Yes.”

“I thought so.”

“You did?” 

You shrug. “It’s kinda obvious. I don't know why you've been hiding that fact about yourself.”

“I thought you might like me better if you thought I was human. Does it change anything for you?”

You lean against your bike and look at her. That new jacket looks really cute on her. “No. Doesn't change anything. I still like seeing you.”

“Oh.” Her face flushes that deep teal and you wonder why it was ever a question of whether or not she was human.

“I uh,” she continues, “I’ve been thinking that I would like to see more of you. Outside of uh, our arrangement I mean.”

That has your attention. “What?”

“It’s not fair of me to only text you when I want to well…” she blushes again, “If I have to go off planet unexpectedly like I had to recently, I don't want to leave you uh, ‘hanging’, as they say. It's not fair to you and I think I really like you.”

“Are you saying that you’d like to be more than friends with benefits?”

“Well I do enjoy the benefits,” she smirks into the distance, catches herself, and now her entire face blushes teal, “But I’d, uh, yes. I would like that very much.”

You can’t contain the smile on your face. “Sure!” your voice cracks as you say it. You hope you’re not sounding too eager but she’s grinning from ear to ear too, nearly laughing in relief.

“The house is nearly finished being remodeled and once it’s done there’s going to be a house warming party. The whole town will likely be there. Would you like to come?”

“I’d love to! Do you still have a waterfall in your room?”

“Oh yes! That part hasn’t changed too much.”

Your heart is in your throat and you scramble for something else to say before you part, “Do you want to go on a regular date? Before that? If you’re not too busy? You can tell me all about your time in space?”

“Oh there’s so much to tell. Let’s see,” the stone on her forehead glows again and a teal day planner pops out of it. She flips through the pages and finds a day. “I have a free moment available this Saturday from 6:35 pm to 4:15 am.”

“Would you like to hang out on the Boardwalk at seven? See where the night takes us?”

“Perfect!” she beams as she pencils you in and puts the planner back into her head.

You reach for your helmet and start fiddling with the straps. “So, uh, meet you here on Saturday?”

She nods enthusiastically and you don’t take your eyes off her eyes as you strap on your helmet. “See you then!” you smile and start to rev your bike.

“Wait just a minute,” she rushes up and stands on tip toe to give you a quick peck on the lips and then stands back. “See you Saturday!”

You don't stop smiling your whole ride back to Ocean Town.


End file.
